Nice job scribes. Your incessant questioning of other players about Tiger Woods has caused one very good interview to go the “no comment” route now. Graeme McDowell just commented that he will no longer answer anything but “no comment” when asked about Tiger Woods. This is following an interview where 90% of the questions to him were about Woods, and some of his responses were inappropriately taken out of context:

“I spent 90% of my press conference last week at Bay Hill being asked questions about Tiger, speculating about where his game is right now… Many of my quotes have been taken out of context and spun quite negatively. It’s hard for me to comment on Tiger in the early 2000s… I can only say that he has raised the bar so much in the sport globally and players are so much better equipped to win these days… He seems more beatable nowadays simply because the players around him are better and have more belief thanks to Tiger moving the needle. I really shouldn’t get caught up in speculation and opinion especially when talking about TW. you set yourself up for failure!! Hence, “no comment” going forward!!” ~Graeme McDowell

Way to go golf press. You beat GMac to death with Tiger questions and when he answers them honestly, you make him look bad. That’s a shank out of bounds.

The fact is that professional golf NEEDS more players like GMac; guys who are approachable and will give you an honest answer and opinion.

Actually, for different reasons, golf needs more GMacs and Tiger Woods. Tiger makes the game exciting. Raises the level of competition. Without Tiger, its generally a bunch of “who is that on the leaderboard” type players. Tiger, Phil, VJay, etc bring the game to average viewer. makes them want to watch players they know and who excel. There are only a handful of players that make the broadcast, and Tiger is one of them. That is not taking anything away from GMac, or Bubba, or any of those guys, who are great but they are not the draw to the casual fan on his couch at home on Sunday. Tiger is.

Thanks for the comments “databat.” Based solely on numbers and ratings, your point can’t be disputed. Tiger is THE draw in golf media, which is exactly why the press did what they did to Gmac. They’re trying to fabricate Tiger stories any way they can because Tiger stories generate more hits, traffic, views, viewers. This is true even for this blog. I don’t write about Tiger 24/7 like the standard golf media does. Even so, my traffic can increase by as much as 10X when Tiger is playing and in contention.

A few years ago, when Tiger was at his peak, CNBC did a study and showed that if Tiger won on Sunday, the Market was up on Monday. If Tiger was in contention on Sunday and lost, the market was usually down on Monday. The power of Tiger.

NO sport survives without its stars. Took Mcqwire and Sosa breaking the HR record to bring baseball back from its depths after the strike. Takes big names like Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady, etc to keep the NFL on top. Why is soccer not huge in America? Two reasons, no commercial TV time outs so networks can’t make money, but no star name recognition. Hockey, who is the big star? I know because I like Hockey, but most people can’t name 2 players. NBA, Lebron,Kobe, etc, etc. etc. Huge names. Who is the hugh name in golf if Tiger is on the down swing? Phil is, but he is on the downside too. Rory isn’t it in America. GMac, Dustin Johnson, Zack Johnson, Bubba Watson, Jason day, they aren’t. Anthony Kim and Ricky Fowler could have been, but weren’t. Again, not a comment on their skills or their abilities to dominate a tournament — all of these guys are amazing players. But to the casual fan, they rather watch Michelle Wie then one of them. Thats why John Daly is still popular, people like watching him (and waiting for the train wreck that may come with it.)